Thursday, March 26, 2009

The Eagles baseball team started that week off the right way with a great performance at Hartford. BC scored 4 runs in the top of the 9th to grab the 8-4 victory lead by the brilliant performance on the mound from Pat Dean (7.0 innings, 1 ER). The Eagles bats were also great, lead by Mickey Wiswall who had 3 RBIs, Andrew Lawrence who had 2 RBIs and Mike Belfiore who had the game winning double in the ninth to give the Eagles the win.

BC Baseball then struggled at Holy Cross yesterday. Losing 8-2 to the Crusaders in an all around bad game. Mike Belfiore and Micky Wiswall did all they could at the plate, knocking in the Eagles only 2 runs but that wasn't enough. Taylor Lasko struggled in the start pitching on 2.2 innings, giving up 5 hits and 3 runs. Although the Eagles struggled Matt O'Brien was a brightspot out of the pen, pitching 2.0 scoreless innings.

Other Links:The Women's Basketball team put away BU in their second round game in the WNIT on Monday. The Eagles won 68-53, lead by usual suspects Carolyn Swords and Stefanie Murphy. The go on to play St. John's in New York tonight in the 3rd round.

Nick Petricki's tenure is done at BC. He has signed with the San Jose Sharks' AHL team, the Worchester Sharks. Petrecki had a brilliant year as a freshmen at BC, being on the of backbone's to the national championship team but he didn't have a very good sophomore year. Petrecki played undisciplined and was very inconsistant.

The Men's Basketball team is looking to play a familiar foe. Villanova is a great program and would be a great addition to BC's non-conference schedule.

Heather Dinich of ESPN talks with Montel Harris about the BC offense. Some good stuff in their about the new offense the Tranquill is trying to implement at BC.

Monday, March 23, 2009

The baseball team finished the weekend off well. They took the rubber game of the series with 5-2 to victory over Maryland. Sophomore Kevin Moran was the key to victory, after Mike Dennhardt struggled in the start pitching only 1 and 1/3 innings. Moran came in and pitched 4 and 2/3 scoreless innings of relief giving up on 4 hits in the process. Sophomore Micky Wiswall and Junior Barry Butera's performances at the dish also helped the Eagles pull out a much needed win. Wiswall went 2-for-3 with 2 RBI's and Butera went 2-for-4 with a solo home run in the sixth inning.

The Eagles improve their record to 13-6 overall and 4-3 in the ACC. The Eagles travel to Hartford to play on Tuesday and to Holy Cross on Wednesday. Then they host their first ACC series on Friday when Clemson travels to Shea Field.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

The Baseball team was playing a three game series against Maryland this weekend and they started off very well. They beat Maryland in the first game of the series, 6-2. The bats of Sophomores Mike Hamlet and Barry Sudol were the keys on offense and Senior JB MacDonald shut down the Maryland bats.

In the middle game of the 3 game series this afternoon the Eagles played well enough to win but Maryland got a walk off single by Taylor Buran to take the second game of the series. Sophomore John Leonard got the start and picked very well, he ended up with a no-decision.

BC finished up the series with Maryland tomorrow at 1 pm at Maryland's Shipley Field.

BC 0, BU 0 - End of the 1st. Good first period up and down action with a lot of penalties. Shots BU 9, BC 7.

Keys to the second period:1. Stay out of the Box:C took to many penatlies that period. BU has a great PP and BC can't keep giving them opportunities.2. John Muse: Keep it up. Playing very good again.3. Scoring the First Goal: Score the first goal and put the pressure on BC but even if BU scores first, they got to keep their poise and not panic.

BC 1, BU 0 - End of second. Another great period by Muse but it was huge to get the goal.Keys to the third period:1. John Muse - has gotta keep doing what he is doing. He is playing real good.2. Score - If we score again BC will put all the pressure on BU. (Plus you can't win if you don't score more than the other team)3. Stay out of the box - Like I said after the first. BU is unreal on the PP and if we keep giving them PP opportunities they are going to score.

BC 1, BU 0 - Puck is about to drop in the 3rd. Lets go Eagles.

BC 1, BU 0 - BC PP. Shattenkirk rough.

BC 1, BU 0 - BU kills it. 16:34 left.

BC 1, BU 0 - Another BU penalty followed by the patented whining by Jack Parker.

Welcome to the Towers on the Heights live blog of the NCAA Round of 64 game between your Boston College Eagles and the Southern California Trojans.

BC 5, USC 5 - Rice makes his first 3.

USC 10, BC 7 - At the first TV timeout BC has been playing well but they gotta play better defense.

USC 12, BC 9 - Rice has started out awesome, 3-3 FG, 7 points but is getting no help.

USC 16, BC 13 - 2nd TV timeout. BC is rebounding well, but Southern has to do a better job on Taj Gibson. Rakim Sanders has picked up his second foul and is on the bench. Reggie Jackson has come in for him.

Aside: I got my second TV set up for the upcoming hockey game!

BC 18, USC 16 - After a slow start everyone is playing much better.

Aside2: UMass-Lowell ties is up. Game is going to OT, so our game won't start until later.

BC 23, USC 18 - BC is getting physical on the defensive end, Dunn is playing awesome. Raji is hitting shots which is great and Roche just drills a three!

BC 23, USC 18 - Third TV timeout. Nothing has change but Rice just got a nice jump ball on Hackett, USC had the arrow though. 7:22 to play in the 1st half.

USC 25, BC 23 - BC has gone cold from the field missing their last 4. Sanders, Southern and Trapani back in.

USC 27, BC 25 - Fourth and final TV timeout of the half. USC went on a 9-0 run but Raji makes two free throws to end that. BC is struggling on defense as USC is moving the ball well. 3:51 to play in the half.

Halftime Analysis: BC played pretty well overall in the half. They started off really hot hitting about 60% of their shots then cooled off a little and USC grabbed a seven point lead, behind the dominance of Taj Gibson. Southern played Gibson much better then Dunn therefore he is going to need to stay out of foul trouble and on the court to keep BC in it. Sanders got into foul trouble early as well, he picked up 2 quick ones and sat for the rest of the half but Corey Raji really stepped up and played his best half of the year. He was able to score inside and outside and play some nice defense. Rice has played a much better first half then his previous 5 or 6 games, he started off 3-3 with 7 points but then struggled after getting his normal rest with 3 TOs. But overall there is not much to complain about.

Keys to the 2nd half:1. Stay out of Foul trouble: Sanders and Rice both have 2 fouls, so they need to stay out of foul trouble because BC needs them on the floor to win.2. Defense on Gibson: Gibson was almost unstoppable in the first half and Southern and Dunn need to do a better job on him in the second half. He does have two fouls so our best bet may be getting him off the court with foul trouble.3. Rebounding: If we can stay on the boards and keep USC from getting 2 chances BC has a great chance to win.

Second half to come to go along with the Hockey game!

BC 37, USC 30 - Rakim starts the half of well with a 3 pointer.

BC 37, USC 35 - USC responds with 5 quick points.

BC 39, USC 37 - Taj Gibson is a monster but he has 3 fouls. BC needs to attack him.

BC 42, USC 41 - Trapani hits a three but Southern doesn't play very smart and picks up 2 more fouls in like 14 seconds to get his 4th.

I am not sure if I can emphasize this enough, but I'll try: TODAY IS A HUGE DAY IN BC SPORTS. We have NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament action and we have Hockey East Semifinal action. I am going to preview both games for you.

I'll start with the Basketball Game first:#7 Boston College (22-11) vs. #10 Southern California (21-12) - 7:20 PM EST.Boston College has had 6 days off since they last played vs. Duke in the ACC tournament. BC came oh so close in that game, losing by only 1 with a last second jumper from Rakim Sanders bouncing of the front of the rim. BC is also going to be making the trip back to the NCAA tournament after a year hiatus. They were one of the big surprises on Selection Sunday as well, not because they got in but because they got such a high seed (7 seed). The Eagles must have been exstatic to get out of the 8/9 slot due to who they would play if they are able to get past the first round.

Now onto the game. They are going to be facing one of the hottest teams in the NCAA tournament in Southern Cal. The Trojans caught fire at the end of the year winning 5 in a row, including 3 in a row to win the Pac-10 Tournament. They are considered the best 10 seed in the tournament by some people however they did finish 5th in down Pac-10 this year. USC should not be under estimated because they do have a great team and do play some great defense. But they do struggle mightly on the road, having only won 3 games on the road all season with one of them being against Chatanooga and the other being against lowly Oregon. BC may just have another advantage against them as well. They are going to be playing in the Metrodome in Minneapolis and it is often said that your shot changes in a dome. Therefore, BC playing in the Georgia Dome last week in the ACC tourament will give them a huge advantage against USC who hasn't played in a dome all year.

USC has some very great players which is going to lead to some very great matchups in this game. I am going to give a little preview of a few of those in this game:

DeMar DeRozan (USC) vs. Rakim Sanders (BC)DeMar DeRozan is one of the premire Freshmen around the country and he is also one of the most athletic players in the nation. Rakim Sanders is also one of the most versitile wings in the nation as he can post up in the paint or drill the open three pointer. This is going to be the most intreging matchup of the game as these two will probably going to be going head to head on both ends of the floor. Rakim Sanders is known to be one of the better and most aggressive defenders in the ACC while DeRozan has been a question mark all year. If Rakim Sanders can hit his shots early and get hot he can definitely get the better of this matchup but if not BC may be in trouble because DeRozan is very good on the offensive end.

Marcus Simmons (USC) vs. Tyrese Rice (BC)Marcus Simmons is known to be USC's lockdown defender. He was able to shut down UCLA's best guard Darren Collison in the Pac-10 and has really come on in the second half of the year. While Tyrese Rice is considered one of the best Points Gaurds in the country as he can put up 40 points in any game. Rice has struggle for the past couple weeks as he has only been shooting around 35%. But he seems to always show up in big games and this is probably the biggest game of the year. If Rice can take Simmons off the dribble and get to the rim a lot, I like BC changes but if Simmons is able to force turnovers BC may just be in trouble.

Taj Gibson (USC) vs. Josh Southern (BC)Taj Gibson is the Pac-10 defensive player of the year and he can block almost everything on the defensive end but he can also put the ball in the basket on the offensive end. Josh Southern has matured over the season and his post game on both ends of the floor has improved greatly. The key to this matchup is foul trouble, if one of the two is able to stay on the floor while the other is in foul trouble then that team will be in trouble. Both of these guys have had trouble stay on the floor all year so if either team wants to win, these two need to stay discipline and stay on the floor.

There you have it...If BC can win two of the three matchups I think they will win. My prediction for the game BC 75 USC 71.

Now onto the other important game of the night....#6 Seeded Boston College (18-13-5) vs. #1 Seeded Boston University (29-6-4) - Appox. 8:00 PM EST.The rivalry renews. This time in the Hockey East semifinals. If you looked at the BC hockey team after the third BC/BU game (where BC lost 5-2) you would have thought these teams won't meet in the postseason this year because BC was playing that bad. However, Jerry York has worked his magic again and somehow got BC to win 5 of their last 6 beating Northeastern once, Providence twice and sweeping New Hampshire in the Hockey East Quarterfinals last weekend. This team just seems to love the playoffs and they seem to just know how to win when they need to and they sure need to win this game. BC is playing for their NCAA tournament lives, they are currently in 17th in the PWR rankings (the rankings the NCAA uses to select the field) and can only have any shot at the making the field if they win tonight. BU has a #1 seed all but locked up but they still have something to play for. BC has knocked BU out of the playoffs many a times in the last decade and this is their chance to do the same and you better believe they will be ready to play and I'm sure Coach York will have his boys ready to play as well. There are several things I think BC needs to do in order to win this game and I am going to give them to you along with my prediction for the game.

TOTH's Keys to the Game:1. John Muse - if BC wants to have any chance, John Muse has to continue to play the way he has been playing in the last few weeks. He shutout UNH last Saturday, a week after recieving the Hockey East defensive player of the week title. He needs to build off of that success in order for BC to win.2. Defense - I am not going to sugar coat it, the defense has been terrible all year up until the last few weeks as well. They need to play more responsibly defensively, not turn the puck over in the defensive and neutral zones. BU has some great scorers and play makers like Colin Wilson and Matt Gilroy so BC needs to be extra careful around them. Petrecki needs to continue to be physical but he also needs to be smart and not get goaded into stupid penalties. If they play well, John Muse plays better as does the rest of the team.3. Brock Bradford - BC needs to go up early and Brock Bradford is one of the best goal scorers in the country. If Bradford can give BC a lead early it is going to give them a huge confidence booster which could be the key to victory.

My Prediction: I think BC plays extremely well but I think they fall just short because of their weak backend....BU 3 BC 2 in 2OT. (I sure hope I am wrong though)

Here's to a great a great day for BC sports and I sure hope both teams can pull out the victories leading to an even better night!

Hello, my name is Nick. I am currently a Freshman at Boston College and am a HUGE BC sports. I follow all sports from Tennis to Volleyball to Baseball to Football. I am starting this blog to try to keep everyone informed of what is going on with BC sports. I will do my best to recap events, share pictures, share stories and more.

If you guys have any comments, suggestions, questions or anything email me at the link on the right hand side.